CLINICAL AND RESEARCH UPDATES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
AND THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND MEDICAL CENTER

Tackling Liver Cancer with
Multi-Pronged Approach
In this Issue
Rounding Out Care

| p3

The Anatomy of Tolerance | p4
New Discharge Information

| p6

Hypertension Clinical Trial | p8
New Critical Care Tower | p9

A young man in his late
thirties came to the
University of Maryland
Marlene and Stewart
Greenebaum Cancer Center
(UMGCC) with upwards of two dozen
cancerous lesions on his liver — so
many that imaging scans to diagnose
him “lit up like a Christmas tree.” But
his seemingly hopeless situation —
which years ago would have caused
physicians to throw up their hands
in defeat — was tackled with unique,
targeted therapy that resulted in clean
CT scans for the patient six months later.
Known as selective internal radiation
therapy (SIRT), the non-surgical

medicine on a missionSM | OneCall 1-800-373-4111
umm.edu

outpatient treatment uses radioactive
microspheres called SIR-Spheres to
deliver up to 40 times more radiation
to liver tumors than would be possible
using conventional radiotherapy.
Cutting-edge procedures such
as this — which the University of
Maryland Medical Center currently
performs more of than any other
hospital in the nation — combined
with a variety of innovative surgical
tactics place UMGCC at the forefront
of comprehensive approaches to
challenge this traditionally devastating
malignancy.
| cont’d p2

Tackling Liver Cancer with
Multi-Pronged Approach | cont’d from p1
“We have many different options
to present to our patients, and
sometimes the physicians on the Liver
Tumor Board combine techniques,
going back and forth to create the
best treatment, which doesn’t always
happen elsewhere,” says Navesh
Sharma, D.O., Ph.D., assistant professor
of radiation oncology and associate
director of the radiation oncology
residency program. “I’ve actually had
several patients who had been told
to get their affairs in order, who were
told they had a few months left but
lived well beyond a year or more. We
encourage patients to be proactive
and research all available options.”

to make a lasting treatment effect
with patients with these cancers,” he
adds. “Multi-modality is important
because other therapies can stop
or shrink disease enough to allow
surgery to be possible.”

SURGERY LEADS TO “LASTING
TREATMENT EFFECT”

One of those advances is the use
of laparoscopic or other minimally
invasive surgery to remove some
liver tumors, which wasn’t done until
relatively recently. Aside from a faster
recovery and less pain — both huge
benefits — this technique also allows
patients to begin chemotherapy
more quickly afterwards than open
surgery generally allows. But it’s not
for everyone: Patients undergoing
minimally invasive surgery typically
have smaller tumors located in the outer
portion of the liver, Dr. Reddy says.

To be sure, liver malignancies remain a
formidable foe, with most presenting
as metastases of colorectal cancer
and a smaller percentage presenting
as primary liver cancers. But surgical
remissions or cures are possible for
increasing numbers of patients seen
annually at UMGCC whose tumors
are resected. More patients are being
attracted to the highly reputable
program every year, says Srinevas K.
Reddy, M.D., an assistant professor of
surgery in the Division of General and
Oncologic Surgery.
“Of those with metastatic cancer,
about 20% or 30% are resectable,
where we can take out all the cancer
and leave them with enough liver to
survive,” Dr. Reddy explains. “Another
10% to 20% are resectable after
chemo to shrink their disease, and
about 20% of those with primary liver
cancer are initially resectable.
“With all of these diseases, despite
improvements in chemo, the only
chance for longer-term survival is
surgery, and it’s one of the only ways

Ten-year data shows that newer
chemotherapy agents and better
surgical techniques have led to a
dramatic improvement in survival,
Reddy notes. About 60% of colorectal
cancer patients with liver metastases
are still alive five years after diagnosis,
compared to about one in six a
decade ago. “We’ve really made
excellent strides,” he says.

“We’re still committed to safety and
getting the tumor out,” he adds,
“and we won’t compromise to do
that through minimally invasive
techniques. Every patient’s case is
presented at a multidisciplinary liver
tumor conference to really study the
images and customize our approach.”

SIR-SPHERES SURPASS
CONVENTIONAL
RADIOTHERAPY
For inoperable liver malignancies,
a variety of radiotherapy treatment
options may be appropriate
depending on a patient’s individual

|2 on a mission | OneCall 1-800-373-4111

needs. The use of SIR-Spheres —
which will be implanted in about
150 patients this year — builds on
UMGCC’s role as the first center in
the nation, in 2000, to successfully
perform liver-directed therapy with
TheraSpheres, which delivered
radiation to liver tumors with
microscopic glass beads.
Millions of tiny radioactive SIR-Spheres
are transported to the tumor site
through the hepatic arteries, trapping
them in the tumor’s vascular bed
where they can destroy adjacent
tumor cells. The outpatient procedure,
typically administered in two
treatments, minimizes damage to
healthy liver tissue and leaves patients
feeling and functioning more normally
within weeks, Dr. Sharma says.
Since each patient’s blood supply is
mapped out prior to the procedure,
“each is customized, and that’s where
our experience and the experience
of our colleagues in interventional
radiology really matters because
we’re able to do things on a small,
segmental level … and change things
on the fly where blood vessels are a
little different,” he adds.
Treatment with SIR-Spheres can
improve patient outcome with low
toxicity — and hence better quality
of life — than repeated chemotherapy
cycles. “It depends on what stage
we’re treating patients,” he says,
“but it’s shown that at every stage
of treatment ... SIR-Spheres improve
both progression-free survival and
overall survival.”

COMMUNICATION IS KEY
Beyond cancer, UMMC physicians are
routinely investigating other common
liver conditions such as hepatitis,
cirrhosis and fatty liver disease. In

EXPANDED

| CLINICAL SERVICES |

ROUNDING
OUT CARE AND
RESEARCH

N. SHARMA’S, D.O., Ph.D.,
research focus is in the
application of radiation
therapy for gastrointestinal,
gynecological and hematological
malignancies as well as in the
improvement of treatment
delivery for highly targeted
radiation modalities.

“SCARLESS” KIDNEY DONATION

BOOSTS PATIENT SATISFACTION

• Selective internal radiation therapy
known as SIR-Spheres is one treatment
option for liver tumors

fact, about half of Dr. Reddy’s
time is spent on clinical outcomes
research on fatty liver disease —
not only its surgical outcomes,
but whether the condition
exacerbates problems with other
organs such as the heart.

team effort. UMMC physicians
give special focus to communicating
with patients’ primary care
doctors to make sure they
understand what procedures
have been planned or undertaken
so it’s never a surprise.

“So many different diseases
affect the liver, from cancers to
diabetes,” he explains. “That’s
what distinguishes us from other
places that may have one surgeon
who can only do liver cancer.
We are so interested in clinical
outcomes research, and we want
to apply it to patient care as
opposed to an institution that
operates on patients all day.”

“I’m constantly on the phone with
a patient’s doctor so that doctor
and I have a firm plan of what’s
going on,” Dr. Reddy says. “I
think it’s also important because
it shows patients and their local
doctors that we’re not going to
‘steal’ their patient. We recognize
that the local doctor is the key to
managing that patient from both
a local standpoint and a longterm standpoint.”

Managing these patients, he
points out, is a multidisciplinary,

University of Maryland researchers found
that living donors who donated a kidney
that was removed through a single port
in the navel report higher satisfaction in
several key categories, compared to donors
who underwent traditional multiple-port
laparoscopic removal. The results were
recently published in the Annals of Surgery.
The single port technique has been
described as virtually scarless, because
nearly the entire incision, once healed, is
hidden within the navel. Researchers at
the University of Maryland, including lead
author Rolf Barth, M.D., found the single
port donation group had significantly
improved satisfaction with the cosmetic
outcome and the overall donation process.
Additionally, this technique was associated
with fewer limitations in bending, kneeling
or stooping following surgery, and slightly
less pain after surgery, compared to the
multiple incision laparoscopic approach.
The study also confirmed the safety of both
procedures as equally safe methods of
kidney donation for patients.
Single-port donor nephrectomy, also known
as laparoendoscopic single-site (LESS)
surgery, has been the standard of care
for living kidney donors at the University
of Maryland Medical Center for the past
three years; however, no objective data
previously existed to compare the singleport with the multiple-port laparoscopic
techniques. UMMC is one of the first
hospitals in the country to consistently use
this surgical approach on living donors and
has employed the single-port technique in
230 donors.
| cont’d p7

Dr. Sharma can be reached at 410-328-7617 or at nsharma@umm.edu.
Dr. Reddy is at 410-328-6187 or at sreddy@smail.umaryland.edu.
Log onto umm.edu/liverwebcast to see a presentation by Dr. Reddy
on liver metastases.

winter 2013

|3

The Anatomy of Tolerance

Understanding Immune Response for Optimal Organ Transplantation
Every day a stranger offers
the greatest gift of all, the
gift of life. In the U.S. alone,
more than 100 million
people have signed up to
be organ donors. Yet, the need for
transplantation is so great that nearly
75,000 people are currently waitlisted
to receive an organ.
Much has been learned since the first
successful organ transplant in 1954
when an identical twin donated a
kidney to his brother suffering from
kidney disease. Since then, there
have been tremendous advances
in organ transplantation, including
techniques to better match donors
and recipients and the development
of new immunosuppressive drugs.
Discoveries in these areas have helped
reduce acute organ rejection and
improve transplant outcomes.
However, even healthy organs
transplanted between appropriately
matched patients may be inadvertently
rejected by the donor’s immune
system. Immunosuppression,
while helpful, can also offer some
disadvantages.
“The problem with immunosuppression
drugs is that patients need to take
them for life. The drugs have side
effects and can at times lead to adverse
medical reactions,” says Jonathan
Bromberg, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the
Division of Transplantation at the
University of Maryland Medical Center.
Dr. Bromberg’s background is unique
because he is both a surgeon and an
immunologist. “I was told follow your
heart and your brain, so I did both,”
says Dr. Bromberg, who obtained both
a Ph.D. in immunology and his medical
degree from Harvard University.
Dr. Bromberg is a professor of surgery

and microbiology and immunology at
the University of Maryland School of
Medicine.
Interdisciplinary research led by
Dr. Bromberg between the
University of Maryland’s School
of Medicine and Department of
Microbiology and Immunology may
help to better understand the immune
system at a more fundamental level.
Dr. Bromberg’s work focuses on trying
to determine how modulating immune
system response can help support —
rather than reject — organ transplants.
The benefits to the patient would
include fewer transplantation
complications, the need for less
medication and possibly even fewer
doctor visits once the organ is
transplanted.

TRAVELING T CELLS
In the area of immunosuppression, the
general approach has been to develop
drugs that focus on a single molecule
or cell. However, a broader approach
may also be important because
molecules, cells and organs don’t
always interact in a linear fashion.
In fact, they act more as a complex
network with multiple interacting
pathways.
“We haven’t yet discovered all the
guiding principles surrounding basic
immunology and therefore haven’t
yet determined how to best modulate
the immune system for optimal organ
transplantation,” says Dr. Bromberg.
Although it hasn’t yet been achieved,
the holy grail would be to perfectly
regulate immune suppression to
achieve complete tolerance of the
transplanted organ. Dr. Bromberg’s
research suggests that tolerance may
have a lot to do with how, when and
where specific white blood cells travel.

|4 on a mission | OneCall 1-800-373-4111

One of the questions he is trying to
answer is how certain cells, such as
regulatory T cells, travel from the
blood to the donated organ and then
back into the blood and lymph nodes.
Understanding regulatory T cell
migration is crucial because research
by various groups has shown that
these cells can be involved in shutting
off an immune response.

DECIPHERING SIGNALS
AND PATHWAYS
Regulatory T cell migration can be
compared to a person taking a long
road trip. The driver may decide to
take a winding back road or a speedy
highway. While traveling, the driver
may also decide to stop somewhere
to eat or even take a detour into
a scenic road. With every trip, the
person gains experiences and learns
new things.
“Signals tell regulatory T cells when
to leave one place and go somewhere
else,” says Dr. Bromberg. “And when
it reaches its destination, another set
of signals can tell it to do other things
such as to mature, differentiate or
proliferate.”
Dr. Bromberg believes that
understanding signaling that drives
these and other cells is key. “Getting
regulatory T cells to travel at the right
time to the right place and in the right
numbers may be important in helping
suppress an immune response,” he says.
Determining the signals that cause
these cells to move into and out of
the organ and lymph nodes — sites
of immune reactivity — is therefore
pivotal. This may not be achieved by
hitting a single cell or molecule, but
by better understanding the pathways
that underlie cell migration and the
complex interactive immune network.

OPTIMAL ORGAN

| TRANSPLANTATION |

KEY
POINTS:

JONATHAN BROMBERG, M.D.,
Ph.D., studies immunosuppression
and the migratory patterns of T cells
with the hope of understanding
what causes organ rejection.

“It’s a different way to look at the
immune system, because we still
don’t have drugs that take this
traveling into account,” says Dr.
Bromberg. “However, understanding
these interactions may also help
develop better immunosuppressive
drug targets.”
In his research in mice, Dr. Bromberg
is studying how a combination of
monoclonal antibodies, timing and
transfusion of certain white blood
cells and molecules can impact
immune suppression.
Results have shown that
administering this combination
as early as seven days prior to
organ transplantation can play
an important role in the immune
response by establishing a more
tolerant environment for organ
transplantation which may eventually
lead to better acceptance of the
transplanted organ.

Developing a better understanding
of the basic aspects of the immune
system could even lead to
improvements in other areas.
Today, one of the most successful
transplantations involves kidney
transplants. On average, the chance of
rejection in the first year after kidney
transplantation is about 10% to 15%.
However, as patients get further along —
5 to 15 years after transplant — they
may develop something called chronic
rejection, which involves chronic
scarring.

“We believe this chronic scarring is
due to ongoing, low-level rejection
of the organ by the immune system.
This happens with various transplants
over time, and right now it can be
difficult to diagnose or control,” says
Dr. Bromberg.
“However, if we understood the
immune response to a point
where we could achieve perfect
immunosuppression, then we would
be able to completely prevent both
acute and chronic organ rejection in
the first place,” he adds. “This would
help us achieve complete tolerance.”

Dr. Bromberg can be reached by email at jbromberg@smail.umaryland.edu or
by phone at 410-328-5408.

winter 2013

|5

Medicine on a Mission:
New Discharge Notification Brings
Crucial Information Full Circle
One of the major
contributions of
academic medical
centers such as
University of Maryland
Medical Center (UMMC) is providing
outstanding care to patients hailing
from far and wide. But getting each
patient’s treatment information back to
their primary or referring physicians —
crucial to patients’ safety and continuum
of care — has often been a challenge,
with summaries of patients’ hospital
care, lab tests and newly prescribed
medications not arriving to
professional colleagues in a timely
or reliable way.
Here at UMMC, we are applying our
brand theme, “Medicine on a Mission,”
to how we interact with physician
partners. We are on a mission to be
a valuable resource, providing timely,
accurate information about patients
cared for at the Medical Center. We
have recently implemented new
automated discharge notifications
accompanied by a brief “clinical
summary,” rapidly bringing primary
and referring doctors up to date
on their patients’ hospitalizations,
faxed within 24 hours of discharge.
Spearheaded by UMMC’s medical staff
leadership and the Office of Referring
Physician Services, this effort builds
on a 2011 UMMC initiative to auto-fax
doctors “admit notification” letters
letting them know their patient had
been admitted for care here.
“We want to make it easy for doctors
and patients to access the Medical
Center, we want to provide excellent
care and we want to return patients
back to their doctors, making sure

they have all the relevant information
to pick things back up,” says Mark
Kelemen, M.D., senior vice president
and chief medical informatics officer
at the University of Maryland Medical
System. Dr. Keleman works with
physicians at the medical system’s
12 hospitals and the faculty of the
University of Maryland School of
Medicine to facilitate the successful
adoption of leading-edge clinical
information technology.
“The final discharge summary may
take a few weeks to complete, but
we may ask patients to get to their
doctors within a week of discharge.
So the challenge of documenting
complex care was competing with
our desire to get key information
promptly to doctors,” Dr. Kelemen
adds. “The key to safe, wellcoordinated medical care involves
strong communication, and this is an
area we knew we needed to improve,
so we leveraged technology to help.”

MAKING TECHNOLOGY
MATCH THE CONCEPT
Technology doesn’t always match
communication concepts, and that
was the case when UMMC physicians,
administrators and IT professionals
first conceived the idea to implement
automated discharge notices. Janine
Good, M.D., associate professor
of neurology at the University of
Maryland School of Medicine and
medical director of ambulatory
services at UMMC, was among the
leaders to tackle improvements to the
physician communication process.
“That’s why this is exciting — it’s a
big step for doing our part in the
continuum of care,” Dr. Good says.

|6 on a mission | OneCall 1-800-373-4111

“Now we have tools to help patients
over the transom and guide them
into models to keep them out of the
hospital.”
The first stage of the process was
taking advantage of the tools
available within patients’ electronic
medical records, Dr. Kelemen
explains. “We did some custom IT
programming to be able to take
relevant information out of UMMC’s
electronic medical record system and
put it in a format useful to referring
physicians.”
Each “clinical summary” includes:
•
•
•
•
•
•

INNOVATIONS ONGOING
The new “clinical summary”
circumvents many problems that
present before they begin, such as
patients returning to their primary
or referring physicians with an
entirely new list of medications they
were taking, but no context to offer
regarding their drug changes and
additions.
“The doctor wouldn’t have that in
their record and wouldn’t necessarily
know the major reasons for any
change. This often required a series
of phone calls and a lot of time and

NEW DISCHARGE

| NOTIFICATION |

effort spent on both sides to collect
that information and present it
back to the referring physician,” Dr.
Kelemen says. “Medications, what
happened in the hospital, and early
follow-up recommendations and
treatment plans are all part of this
summary.”
But innovations to this new system
haven’t ended with its launch. Drs.
Good and Kelemen hope that in the
near future, discharge summaries will
also include a mention of any pending
lab tests done during hospitalization
that hadn’t reported results upon
discharge. That way, primary and
referring doctors don’t duplicate
tests and will know what results are
imminent that may shed more light on
their patients’ needs.
“We also have a great care
coordination program in the hospital
that identifies patients at high risk of
readmission,” Dr. Good says. “We’re
looking at how we can red-flag these
patients on discharge as well.”

ROUNDING OUT CARE
| cont’d from p3
The UMMC transplant team is conducting workshops to train other
transplant surgeons in the LESS technique, and has authored an
updated chapter highlighting this technique in the latest surgical
textbook “Kidney Transplantation.” To reach Rolf Barth, please email
him at rbarth@smail.umaryland.edu.

PEDIATRIC EPILEPSY CARE
The University of Maryland Children’s Hospital recently opened the
state’s only pediatric-dedicated epilepsy monitoring unit. Since
there is a greater demand for pediatric epilepsy programs than
there is availability, the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital
began a program in pediatric epilepsy, staffed with two pediatric
epileptologists: Kathleen Currey, M.D., and Alpa Vashist, M.D., both
assistant professors of pediatrics in the University of Maryland School
of Medicine. This program has the capacity to put patients, including
neonates, under simultaneous video and EEG monitoring.
For appointments with the pediatric epilepsy program, please call
410-706-6091.

IS THERE A TOP DOC IN THE HOUSE?
An all-time high 98 University of Maryland faculty physicians were
recognized as “Top Doctors” in the annual Baltimore Magazine issue
released in November 2012. The results are based on the magazine’s
survey of nearly 10,000 physicians in the Baltimore area asking where
they would send a member of their family in dozens of specialties. The
University of Maryland Medical Center has more doctors on the list
than any other hospital. Log onto www.umm.edu/topdocs to see the
complete list.

winter 2013

|7

Treatment-Resistant Hypertension
Clinical Trial
Hypertension is
endemic in the United
States. The American
Heart Association
estimates that 76
million people, or one-third of adults,
have high blood pressure. Of those
adhering to multi-drug treatment
regimens, an estimated 2% to 10% of
patients still have severely elevated
blood pressure of 160/90 mm Hg or
greater. These patients are at double
the risk for developing complications
of hypertension, including heart
attacks, heart failure and stroke.
University of Maryland professor of
medicine Elijah Saunders, M.D., points
out, “… for African Americans, who
tend to have a more severe form of
hypertension, these risks are much
greater, compared to their Caucasian
counterparts.”

trial’s principal investigator, Anuj
Gupta, M.D., an assistant professor of
medicine at the University of Maryland
School of Medicine.
Patients who meet criteria for the
study undergo renal denervation
using the Symplicity Catheter System,
a product of Medtronic. A catheter
is placed through the groin and
positioned at multiple locations within
the kidney’s arteries. Radiofrequency
energy is then delivered to interrupt
the sympathetic nerves supplying the
kidneys. Patients stay in the hospital
overnight. They then have follow-up
visits at one, three and six months
and then additional visits every
six months.

The University of Maryland Medical
Center is the only site in the state
enrolling in Symplicity HTN-3. This is
a randomized, single-blind, placebocontrolled clinical trial examining
the safety and effectiveness of
renal denervation for patients with
treatment-resistant hypertension and
a systolic blood pressure greater than
160 mm Hg. In phase 1 and phase 2
trials of this treatment strategy,
average systolic blood pressure
reductions of 30 mm Hg were
achieved without evidence of renal
complications.
“There are few options for treatmentresistant hypertension. For those
patients who can’t control their blood
pressure, despite being on three
or more hypertension medicines at
maximum doses, this clinical trial has
potential for changing the way we
manage one of the most common
medical conditions,” explains the

ELIJAH SAUNDERS, M.D., F.A.C.C.,
F.A.C.P., F.A.H.A., F.A.S.H., has a
research interest in hypertension
with a focus on the incidence
among the African-American
population.

|8 on a mission | OneCall 1-800-373-4111

Of those adhering
to multi-drug
treatment regimens,
an estimated 2%
to 10% of patients
still have severely
elevated blood
pressure of 160/90
mm Hg or greater.
Physicians who need more information
may contact Joanne Marshall, R.N., M.S., at
410-328-8790 or at jmarshal@medicine.
umaryland.edu.

TRAUMA CENTER

| EXPANSION |

A New Critical Care
Tower Takes Shape
Construction continues
in downtown Baltimore,
where the country’s
highest volume trauma
center is undergoing
a much-needed expansion. A new
Critical Care Tower at the University
of Maryland Medical Center is taking
shape, expanding the R Adams
Cowley Shock Trauma Center, adding
64 new critical care ICU beds, five
new operating rooms, a new post
operative area with all private
rooms, an expanded and renovated
Emergency Department, a stateof-the-art lab, a national simulation
training center and a large family
waiting area designed with comfort
and privacy in mind. The completion
date is June 2013.
Shock Trauma admits more than
8,600 patients a year, though the
current building was designed to care
for 3,500 patients a year. The new
building will greatly expand capacity
for care, research and teaching,
allowing Shock Trauma teams to do
what they do best: save the lives of
people with severe, life-threatening
injuries sustained in auto crashes, falls,
violent crimes and other traumatic
incidents.
“The R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma
Center is Maryland’s ‘safety net.’ We
are here for our citizens when they
unexpectedly need us. Injury can
strike at any time and our team is
committed to giving every person a
second chance. We are proud to say
that 96% of patients survive,” explains
Thomas M. Scalea, M.D., F.A.C.S.,
physician-in-chief, R Adams Cowley
Shock Trauma Center and Francis X.
Kelly Professor of Trauma Surgery,
University of Maryland School of
Medicine. While most patients are

THE NEW BUILDING will
greatly expand capacity for
care, research and teaching.

Shock Trauma admits more than 8,600
patients a year, though the building was
designed to care for 3,500 patients a year.
admitted from the initial scene, 30%
of patients come as an inter-hospital
transfer. “This expansion means we
can say ‘yes’ to every request for
a transfer, as the new building will
improve our flow of patients,” adds
Dr. Scalea.
“This new building is a collaborative
investment of $160 million with funds
coming from the state, the federal
government, the city of Baltimore
and the counties across Maryland.
The community is also coming
together as individual, corporate and
foundation partners help to provide
the $35 million needed to complete
this valuable project,” says Marianne
Rowan-Braun, vice president and
director of the campaign for Shock
Trauma.
Shock Trauma remains the only facility
in Maryland with a PARC (Primary
Adult Resource Center) designation,

signifying that it provides the highest
level of trauma care with every type
of specialist in the hospital 24/7.
Shock Trauma is also the designated
statewide referral center for head
and spinal cord injuries, multi-system
trauma and severe orthopaedic
injuries. Since 2001, the U.S. Air Force
has partnered with the Medical Center
and School of Medicine to use Shock
Trauma as its readiness training site
for its worldwide medical personnel.
We invite you to tour the new tower
with Dr. Scalea. See for yourself
why Shock Trauma is a gift from the
people of Maryland for the people of
Maryland. Please contact Marianne
Rowan-Braun, at 410-328-8437 to set
up a convenient time.
Please remember that referring a
patient to Shock Trauma takes just
one call to Maryland ExpressCare at
410-328-1234.

winter 2013

|9

New Leaders within University of Maryland
James S. Gammie,
M.D., professor of
surgery, has been
appointed chief
of the division of
cardiac surgery.
In his new role,
he oversees an
extensive range of cardiac surgical
services, from repairing congenital
heart defects in infants and children
to heart transplantations and other
complex procedures for high-risk
adult patients.
Dr. Gammie, who has been a member
of the University of Maryland faculty
since 2002, is an expert in surgery
of the mitral valve and a nationally
known cardiac surgery outcomes
investigator. He currently performs
more than 200 mitral valve operations
per year. He has developed a
specialized practice focusing on
mitral valve repair, minimally invasive
mitral valve surgery and the surgical
treatment of infective endocarditis.
He has organized a clinical research
unit within the division of cardiac
surgery and serves as a principal
investigator for the NHLBI-sponsored
multi-center Cardiothoracic Surgery
Trials Network.
Dr. Gammie is a highly published
physician-scientist and serves
in editorial roles for numerous
cardiothoracic journals, including
Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Journal of
Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery,
Circulation and the Journal of Heart
Valve Disease.
Dr. Gammie received his A.B. in
biochemistry at Brown University
and his M.D. at the University of
Massachusetts Medical School. His
clinical training was performed at
the University of Pittsburgh Medical
School, where he completed his
residency in general surgery, followed

by a research fellowship within the
divisions of cellular therapeutics and
cardiothoracic surgery, and a clinical
fellowship within the division of
cardiothoracic surgery.
Dr. Gammie can be reached at
410-328-5842.

Minesh P. Mehta,
M.B.Ch.B.,
F.A.S.T.R.O., has
been appointed as
medical director
of the Maryland
Proton Treatment
Center (opening
in 2015), as well as professor and
associate director of clinical research
in the department of radiation
oncology, University of Maryland
School of Medicine. He comes to
Baltimore from Chicago where he
was a professor and co-director of
the Radiation Oncology Residency
Training Program at Northwestern
University.
While the Proton Center is built, Dr.
Mehta will be seeing and treating
brain tumor and lung cancer patients
within the Greenebaum Cancer
Center. In his role as medical director,
he will work in the development of
clinical trials and research protocols
for patients, assume a leadership role
within the evolving nationwide proton
center consortium, as well as develop
and integrate criteria for proton
therapy patient selection within the
department of radiation oncologyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
clinical practice guidelines.
Dr. Mehta currently chairs the Brain
Tumor Committee of the National
Institutes of Health-funded Radiation
Therapy Oncology Group focusing on
innovative clinical trials for patients
with various tumors of the central

|10 on a mission | OneCall 1-800-373-4111

nervous system. He maintains an
active interest in radiation-drug
interactions, amelioration of radiation
toxicities, incorporation of advanced
radiation and imaging technologies,
and is keenly interested in expanding
the frontiers of personalized care in
radiotherapy.
Dr. Mehta received his medical
degree with highest honors from
the University of Zambia School
of Medicine in Lusaka, Zambia. He
completed his radiation oncology
training at the University of Wisconsin,
immediately joining the faculty at the
university. He became professor and
LISA
SHULMAN,
M.D.
was
chair
of the department
of human
oncology at the University of Wisconsin
for a decade from 1997-2007.
Dr. Mehta can be reached at
410-328-2325.

Zeljko Vujaskovic,
M.D., Ph.D., has
been appointed
as professor
and director of
the new division
of translational
radiation sciences
in the department of radiation
oncology. He joins us from Duke
University, where he has been
since 1999.
The new division of translational
radiation sciences will serve to further
expand and centralize cutting-edge
research in radiation biology, leading
the exploration of new ways to
treat and eradicate deadly cancers.
Dr. Vujaskovic is an accomplished
National Institutes of Health-funded
physician-scientist with outstanding
leadership skills and a distinguished
career in research and patient care.

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

| NEW LEADERS |

As a clinician, Dr. Vujaskovic will have
a primary focus in genitourinary and
prostate cancers.
Dr. Vujaskovic joins the University of
Maryland from his previous position
as professor, director of the normal
tissue injury laboratory and director
of the Clinical Hyperthermia Program
at Duke University Medical Center. Dr.
Vujaskovic’s clinical and research work
for the past two decades has been to
elucidate the mechanisms associated
with radiation normal tissue injury,
identify potential biomarkers
predicting individual patient risk for
injury and develop novel therapeutic
interventions/strategies to prevent,
mitigate or treat radiation injury. He
is a nationally and internationally
recognized leader in the field of
radiation-related normal tissue injury.

Dr. Vujaskovic received his medical
degree from the University of
Zagreb Medical School in Croatia.
He earned his Ph.D. from Colorado
State University. He completed an
internship at the Medical Centre
Karlovac in Croatia and trained as
a resident at the Military Medical
Academy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He
also completed residency training
at the Medical Centre Karlovac in
Croatia. He finished a fellowship in
medical oncology at the University of
Colorado Cancer Center, and a postdoctoral fellowship in the department
of radiological health services at
Colorado State University.
Dr. Vujaskovic can be reached at
410-328-7618.

CME Activities
HUMAN VIROLOGY
(IHV) CASE CONFERENCE
MONTHLY SERIES
January through December

The following are new leadership
roles within the division of
transplantation:
• Rolf Barth, M.D., is director of
liver transplantation and
hepatobiliary surgery.
• John LaMattina, M.D., is director
of living donor liver transplant.
• Steven Hanish, M.D., who is new
to University of Maryland is
director of hepatobiliary surgery.
• David Leeser, M.D., is director of
kidney pancreas transplant.
All physicians within this division
can be reached at 410-328-5408.

Upcoming

>> 2013 INSTITUTE FOR

DIVISION OF
TRANSPLANTATION

Offered by the University of Maryland School of Medicine in
conjunction with University of Maryland Medical Center.

>> CURRENT TECHNIQUES IN
MANAGEMENT OF COMPLEX
FRACTURES FOR THE
COMMUNITY ORTHOPAEDIC
SURGEON
June 21-22

>> 12TH ANNUAL TOWN/GOWN
NEUROLOGY UPDATE
June 26

All events will be held on the University of
Maryland Baltimore campus. For details and
registration information, please visit:
https://cmetracker.net/UMD/Catalog

These activities have been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ and are sponsored by the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The University of
Maryland School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

winter 2013 |11

ranking high

in specialty care
The University of Maryland Medical Center
is recognized by U.S. News & World Report
in Best Hospitals 2012-13 and is nationally
ranked in these specialties:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

University of Maryland Rounds is a publication of the University of Maryland
School of Medicine and the University of Maryland Medical Center. Originally founded in 1823 as the Baltimore Infirmary, the
University of Maryland has an extensive history of providing innovative and compassionate care to the people of Maryland
and the surrounding region. As a tertiary/quaternary care center, we heal, we teach, we discover and we care.

E. ALBERT REECE, M.D., PH.D., M.B.A.
Vice President for Medical Affairs
University of Maryland
John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers
Distinguished Professor and Dean
University of Maryland School of Medicine

Peter Angelos Distinguished Professor and Chairman,
Department of Surgery
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Surgeon-in-Chief, University of Maryland
Medical System

MAY H. BLANCHARD, M.D., F.A.C.O.G.

Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics,
Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Chief, Division of General Obstetrics & Gynecology
University of Maryland Medical Center

STEVEN J. CZINN, M.D., F.A.A.P.,
F.A.C.G., A.G.A.F.

Professor and Chair, Department of Pediatrics
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Physician-in-Chief, University of Maryland
Children’s Hospital

For questions about Rounds or to receive
an e-version of this newsletter, please
email: rounds@umm.edu

STEPHEN N. DAVIS, M.B.B.S.,
F.R.C.P., F.A.C.P.

Theodore E. Woodward Professor of Medicine
Professor of Physiology
Chairman, Department of Medicine
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Physician-in-Chief, University of Maryland
Medical Center

JANINE L. GOOD, M.D.

Associate Professor of Neurology
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Medical Director, Ambulatory Services
University of Maryland Medical Center